Chapter Text
It had been a couple weeks now since the war with the Governor and the addition of the Woodbury citizens. Everything was in full swing with the extra twenty or so bodies around, everyone working together to clean up the prison and make it a safe environment. There was an added strain on the group as they tried to accommodate the best they could. Rick couldn’t just leave all of those people behind though. Since they lost their original leader, they were in need of new guidance—Rick figured he could give them just that. He knew it would be hard work to get everything going at first but hoped things would change soon after.
Having everyone crammed into the same cell block was less than ideal but D Block was still a work in progress. Everyone took shifts when it came to supply runs, taking watch, cooking, and cleaning up. Not a day went by that they didn’t make a large dent in their progress. Even the elderly folk were doing all they could to help, bless their hearts.
Another day came and went as evening had fallen upon them once again. Beth and Carol worked together with Karen and a couple other ladies from Woodbury to serve what they had prepared for dinner while the others crowded around in light conversation. Rick slightly bounced his daughter in his arms, one hand bracing her bottom while the other was planted firmly across her back. Things might have looked like they were working out but truth be told, there was still just as much tension now than ever.
Carl was becoming harder and harder to reach out to and the more Rick tried, the more he felt like he was failing as a parent. He was just starting to really wrap his head around Lori being gone, no longer seeing her image haunt his mind. Then making the discovery that Tyreese and his small group had joined Woodbury in hopes of survival and having lost two of their members, Rick couldn’t help but think that those deaths were on him. He should have never pushed them away in the first place.
But Daryl? Daryl was a whole other story.
The group had noticed he was wearing down more and more with each day, avoiding everyone more than he often did—even Carol. Rick had brought it up in a brief discussion one day with the woman and they had both settled on the conclusion that this was all falling back on what had happened to Merle, the Governor still out there somewhere waiting to strike. But anytime someone tried to comfort Daryl or try to get him to open up a little, talk about whatever he was going through, he shrunk back and pushed them away. So it left Rick and the others to assume that he was doing okay, doing whatever he needed to do and grieving in his own way.
It was when Daryl’s health started to take a noticeable turn that it concerned the others. Rick had been so occupied chasing down Carl and helping with the Woodbury citizens that he had failed to notice the signs sooner. Hell, everyone had failed to notice sooner with everything that was going on around them.
Daryl hung back most of the time. He never really came around much when it involved the people of Woodbury, he wasn’t eating, and when he did make an appearance, he always had his arms crossed in front of his chest in an attempt to hide the shivering that was coursing through his body.
When he seemed to disappear though, the group panicked. They tried to keep quiet about it, not wanting to alert the townspeople of Woodbury and spook them. Rick rounded up Glenn, Tyreese, Maggie, and Sasha as they searched through the prison in hopes of finding Daryl. Rick felt a pit of guilt building. He should have seen this sooner, should have known that something was wrong.
Rick thought to check the generator room—the room Merle was last seen in before taking off to face the Governor and ultimately sacrificed his life for the prison group to have a fighting chance. Rick swallowed down the bile that rose into his throat at the thought. He never really thought too much about it at the time but he owed his life to Merle. That chance was better than nothing and it delayed the Governor from marching straight to the prison.
The only thing was… Daryl was nowhere to be found in that room. The room was completely empty, just as it had been left.